An Easier way to Plan Your Year

I love planning. Those of you who know me know that I make my own planner, but the reality is that consistency is consistently a problem for me (ironic isn’t it? The only consistency in my life is my lack of it!). I have learned that I need a scratch pad, I need something that I can be messy and just get it down and then transfer that and organize that into my own handmade planner and yet I hate seeing the mess of my brain on paper! Up until now I haven’t really found a solution that works well with my perfectionist mentality. I can’t stand making something that isn’t beautiful but in the moment I need the freedom to just keep track of what is happening or record what we did that day–and I love things that are pretty. That is why I am SO SO SO excited about the new {beautiful} 18 month agendas from Illustrated Faith. They are beautiful, they are simple, they have lots of space and are super functional.

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3 Reasons to use a planner

Even if you are not a huge planner person, there are so many benefits to planning and honestly there are a lot of different approaches. Sometimes I think we need to tweak what we are doing to find what works best with our personality. Here are my top 3 reasons to plan and a little glimpse into just some of the ways you can make a planner work for you.

1. Planning relieves stress.
The act of laying out all your projects and goals and tasks helps you visualize what needs to be done and takes that pressure off that you might be forgetting something. I often keep my planner by my bedside and write a simple list of whatever is on my mind. I find it helps me avoid laying there going over my mental list and fall asleep faster (not to mention sleep better).

2. Planning helps you achieve your goals.
Once you evaluate what you want to accomplish you can create actionable steps on how you can achieve those goals. Planning allows you to give yourself a timeline, a series of tasks to turns those dreams into reality.

3. Planning boosts productivity.
Like it or not, the more you invest in organizing how you spend your time, the better you will manage those hours in your day! Planning makes you more productive, even if you don’t look at your planner once during the day, the simple act of writing it out, of visualizing it, of taking the time to think about it, naturally makes you more productive and efficient!

But I’m not a planner person!

If after reading the benefits above you are still not convinced that a planner can work for you, let’s discuss some of the different ways it can look. While most people use a planner to schedule their lives, there are a lot of other uses. See if any of these speak to you:

• Use a planner to record your life: what you did, how you felt. Kind of like a bullet-point diary.
• Use a planner as a meal planner
• Use a planner for your personal devotions
• Use a planner as a journal for your kids: what they said or did, milestones, etc.
• Use a planner to scrawl out whatever you are thinking of or even jot down a daily to-do list

There really are endless ways to tweak a planner to work for you. Don’t get caught up in the idea that it has to be used “as a planner”. Sometimes a simple shift can help transform it from a chore to a keepsake.

Take a sneak peek at the brand new 18 month agendas from DaySpring!

I love these agendas. I think the simpler something is, the more you have room to make what you want of it. These are the perfect size, not too big and heavy and not too small. They have lots of writing room inside and the colours and backgrounds are some of my absolute favourites! The inside is organized by month and weekly layouts throughout. It also has a pocket, stickers, and notes section in the back. The cover and back are laminated to help them be more durable and they just released a whole bunch of goodies to go with them, including pocket folders, stickers, wash tape, and sticky notes!

What if I want it pretty?

If you want something that is pretty without the work of designing it yourself, the team over at DaySpring has you covered. They have completely redone their monthly devotional kits and they are really the perfect look (and size) to use in your planner. This month’s kit was all gold foil and rustic wood look. There are cut outs to glue in your planner, washi tape, prompts and journal cards that you can tape in, stamps, stickers and more! The best part is, they are now $10 cheaper, selling at only $20! I love that I can get a beautiful planner without taking a lot of time! I also love that it is affordable and doesn’t break the bank!

If your hubby is anything like mine, buying cute little planning supplies and stickers and washi tape is likely not his idea of a fun way of spending money. I sat down with mine and we created a regular budget for our family that I am allowed to spend on some of the more artistic and fun stuff that interests me. Instead of blowing $150 at Michaels, I can do $20 at a time and slowly build my supplies while still staying within the budget. I think the kit is even better than it was before and I honestly can’t wait to see what they come up with next month! Take a look at this months devotional kit and what’s included and CLICK HERE to learn more!

Looking for a homeschool planner?

I’ve got you covered! I just released an undated, black and white homeschool planner available in both print and PDF form that has room for all your homeschool planning and organization in one place! See a flip-through of the planner and learn more here. You can also find it on Amazon here.

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Meet Rebecca

Mom of 5 beautiful kids, second generation homeschooler, married to an RCMP officer and surviving on coffee and Jesus. I do NOT have all the answers, but I do have experience and I freely share what I *hope* will be helpful to someone else on their journey. Come take a peek inside my chaotic life and join me in my vision to focus less on perfection and instead Keep Calm and Homeschool On!

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